Il mare che bagna Taranto: le rotte antiche dello Ionio

The Salento Underwater Archaeological Map has been progressively implemented thanks to the research activities of the Cultural Heritage Department of Salento University and now includes about 650 records, such as wrecks, (hulls and/or cargos), ascertained or hypotetical (80), scattered sherds’ areas, harbour dumps and isolated finds, recovered or still laying on the sea bottom. The last step has seen the transfer of the data base into the wider information system of the Map of Cultural Heritage of Puglia linked to the Regional Landscape Plan (www.cartapulia.it). Regarding the Ionian sea, a rich panorama is offered by the trade flows and routes, also due to the most recent documentation of cargos and ships, landmarks of sea routes. New findings confirm the vibrant economy of Southern Italy in terms of wine production and export in the Hellenistic and Late Republican age. But there also exist some categories of goods with an ancillary function of “saleable ballast”. Various loads attest to trade flows of building materials, stones and above all bricks and tiles in the Salento peninsula and the Ionic Arch, as well as coarse ware (opus doliare), in particular mortars and basins, and containers for the pitch, probably associated to the big spheroidal dolia that transported bulk wine in the container-ships. Imports from North African provinces during the Imperial age are testified by an imposing scattered cargo of Tripolitanian amphorae in the MPA of Porto Cesareo Various wrecks of naves lapidariae dot the Ionian coast of Salento, together with those on the Calabria coasts, along that “ marble way” coming from the Eastern Mediterranean: they have been detected at S. Pietro in Bevagna, Torre Sgarrata, Porto Cesareo. Recent significant research progression has been carried out on wrecks from the Medieval and Modern ages; of particular importance are those in Bacino Grande and La Strea, both in Porto Cesareo (Le).